Chapter 31
Chapter Text
"Bubaigawara Jin?" Maijima asked as the apartment door was opened a crack.
"Who's asking? Don't care!"
"I'm Powerloader and this is Ectoplasm," Maijima said, indicating the man beside him. "We're both professional heroes and teachers at UA. We were hoping to get a few minutes of your time."
"Go away! Come on in!"
The door didn't open or close so they did neither. Maijima raised an eyebrow at his coworker and friend, silently asking how to proceed. Ectoplasm moved closer to the door.
"I have a quirk that produces clones of myself," Ectoplasm said, "and I know how difficult it can be to retain a sense of self when there are many others wearing my face."
"You do?" a genuinely surprised voice asked, followed by, "You know nothing!"
"I know that it's pretty lonely trying to cope with everything all by yourself," Ectoplasm retorted. "We can help, if you let us."
Bubaigawara's confusion was very clear on his face as he finally opened the door. "Why would you?"
"Why wouldn't we?" Maijima asked, grinning at the surprised smile that tilted Bubaigawara's lips. "We're heroes. It's what we do."
~*~
Sir Nighteye had a rather large file on the Yakuza and their quirk erasing drugs, but he'd been unaware of its source or the torture a young child was going through to make it. He didn't seem particularly shocked by the information though.
"Her name is Eri," Shota said, trying not to growl at the continued use of "the test subject" to describe the rescue they weren't really planning. The least he could have done was identify her as "the child."
"How do you know her name?" Sir Nighteye asked, suddenly suspicious.
Shota rolled his eyes. "Because you're not the only one who can see into the future."
"How does erasure let you see the future?" he asked in his usual arrogant and dismissive tone.
Honestly, Shota really wanted to break the guy's nose, but he was pretty sure Izuku had followed him to this meeting and Shota did not want to set a very bad example. Also, if the guy's head was as hard as his shitty attitude, Shota would probably break a bone or two in his hand and he wasn't in the mood for a lecture from Recovery Girl.
"I have an informant—" Shota began to say before cutting his words off at the sight of his pen moving on the end of a very tiny blackwhip. Izuku's control of this quirk was seriously impressive.
"He knows about One for All," Izuku wrote. "Maybe things will go faster if he knows about me."
"Okay." Shota turned his attention back to Sir Nighteye, desperate enough to rescue Eri quickly to give the other hero information they were trying to keep quiet. "One of my students is a time traveler. He was sent back to stop the apocalypse."
"And the Yakuza cause the apocalypse?" Sir Nighteye asked skeptically.
"No, but the heroes who lose their quirks to these bullets could be essential in helping avoid it." Shota was exaggerating just a bit. As far as Izuku's notes indicated only one hero student lost his quirk to the bullets and the damage was reversed by Eri when she finally had some control over her own quirk.
But with the timeline already changed, it was also a real possibility that more heroes could be rendered quirkless in the new future. Sir Nighteye seemed determined to piss Shota off because he just sat there apparently ruminating on the information he'd just been given.
"We have Eri's location, we know Chisaki Kai is experimenting on her, and we know how dangerous he is," Shota said irritably. "We also know all of his allies, their quirks, and their weaknesses."
"I have a meeting set up for early next week. I'll pass this information onto my mission partners and let you know what we decide."
Shota was reconsidering his idea of breaking Sir Nighteye's nose, this time with a chair. How could a man call himself a hero when he seemed so damn heartless? A little girl was being tortured. How could he not want to rescue her right now?
And then he said something that practically guaranteed the opposite reaction from Shota.
"You're dismissed, Eraserhead."
Oh, wow, he was not getting away with that sort of disrespect. Shota wasn't a junior or an inexperienced hero. He was going to—
The loud crack of a whip startled them both.
Shota tried not to smirk when Sir Nighteye paled as his pen was commandeered by a large black tentacle. He looked shocked at whatever Izuku wrote on his notes, but he crumpled the paper before Shota got a chance to read it.
"F–Friend of yours?" he asked, sounding seriously spooked.
Aizawa dipped his head in a small nod.
"Fine," Sir Nighteye said, pushing his glasses up his nose with his middle finger. Shota had no doubt it was a gesture meant specifically for him. "You can organize a raid on the Yakuza compound for tonight, rescue only. Call in whoever you need to make it work. I want no part in it."
Shota looked to blackwhip in time to see it bob in agreement, so he quickly gathered his paperwork and headed for the door.
"Oh and Eraserhead," Sir Nighteye said, his voice still a little shaky. "Don't fail."
Shota didn't bother to acknowledge that with a response.